At Burwood Heights Primary School, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is an integral part of teaching and learning. State of the art technology, a variety of carefully selected and innovative educational software and professional learning equips teachers to assist students to become confident, competent and innovative users of digital technologies in an ever changing digital world.
Term Focus
PREP:
Students explore a variety of educational software specifically designed to engage their interest while introducing and practising necessary skills such as pointing, clicking and dragging with a mouse to open and close programs and manipulate objects on the screen. They learn to use a range of tools to draw and paint and to type simple sentences to describe their work. Students become familiar with common desktop and program icons and learn how to open and close specified programs. They learn about Cyber Safety and how to keep themselves and their personal information safe. Students also develop skills using iPads and a range of carefully selected educational applications. Some of the programs that are introduced are: Simple City; Maths City 1; 2 Paint a Picture, Infant Video Toolkit, 2 Start English and Hector’s World (Cyber Safety). Students also begin to develop their mathematical skills by using the online program, Mathletics, with their classroom teacher.
GRADE 1/2:
Students continue to develop and extend their understandings of an increasing variety of ICT skills and software and the use of the tools within each program. They learn to locate, open and use specified programs from a menu, develop an understanding of how to work in a networked environment and save their work to their own nominated folders. Students continue to learn about Cyber Safety through discussion and further exploration of Hector’s World. They further develop their skills using iPads and interactive projectors with their classroom teachers. Students also begin to learn basic keyboarding skills. Some of the programs that are introduced are: 2 Create a Story; 2 Publish; 2 Type and Office programs such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint.
GRADE 3/4:
Students continue to build on the skills and knowledge they have been developing in previous years. They are introduced to touch typing skills and are encouraged to practise regularly. Students learn how to create, name and save folders to specified destinations on the school network and organise their work within these folders. They begin to use technology to import graphic organisers like Venn Diagrams and manipulate them to organise and collate their thinking. Students research topics on the internet and learn to compare websites for usefulness and which is likely to have more accurate information. Students learn to use technology to create information products using various programs to inform, persuade, entertain or educate audiences and import images captured with a digital camera and transfer them to their file to use in their documents. Some students take part in the Bright Sparks program which gives them the opportunity to investigate topics such as robotics, photo editing, music composition and film making. Some of the programs that are introduced are: Type Quick; 2 Animate; 2 Connect; 2 Create; Budd-e (Cyber Safety); Kahootz 3; 2 Do It Yourself (game making); Photoshop and World Book Online.
GRADE 5/6
Students continue to develop their skills by exploring the many tools available in the programs they use and applying them to their work with increasing sophistication. They continue to work on their Digital Portfolios and add enhanced features such as special effects, sound, animation and hyperlinks. Students use technology such as interactive projectors to present work to their classmates for evaluation. They refine their research skills when undertaking projects in ICT and Integrated Studies and learn to question the validity of the information that they locate. Students are assigned a Google account and learn how to use the online tools available in these applications to communicate with their class mates and teachers. Some students take part in the Bright Sparks program which gives them the opportunity to investigate topics such as robotics, photo editing, music composition and film making. Some of the programs that are introduced are: 2 Create a Super Story; Pivot; Cyber Quoll and other relevant applications from the Cyber Smart website (Cyber Safety); Photo Story; Gmail and Google Apps; Microsoft Publisher and Excel.